The Center for Democracy and Technology did the coolest study ever: They figured out what online activities will attract spam to your inbox. They started a bunch of email addresses, and used them in several ways — on USENET, on web sites, in e-commerce, and other ways. The verdict? From their report:

Our analysis indicated that e-mail addresses posted on Web sites or in newsgroups attract the most spam … CDT received the most e-mails when an address was placed visibly on a public Web site. Spammers use software harvesting programs such as robots or spiders to record e-mail addresses listed on Web sites, including both personal Web pages and institutional (corporate or non-profit) Web pages.

USENET postings also attracted spam, but not as much. The good news is that e-commerce folks were mostly honest about not re-selling your email, when they promised to do so. The other good news is that if you have to post your email on a web sit, you can thwart spambots from harvesting it by slightly altering it — i.e. writing it as clive at clivethompson.net.

For me, the irony is that I’ve left my email address all the hell over Collision Detection. Nor do I disguise it by altering it. No wonder I’m getting, like, 20 penis-enlargement solicitations a day. Sigh.